The Changing Role of Maintenance in Physical Asset Management

Physical asset management (PAM) is an area with a growing role in the asset intensive industry. The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the role of maintenance within PAM. For this purpose, a case study was conducted in a Slovenian organization. The results show that maintenance is recognized as part of PAM activities in the observed paper mill company. Furthermore, the results of the study show that the strongest involvement of maintenance in PAM-related tasks was found in the creation and maintenance of the maintenance management system and the least in the definition of key success factors for the asset system and the design of the asset system. In addition, the case study uncovered two main factors that have the greatest impact on the involvement of maintenance and its activities within PAM, namely leadership and knowledge management. This study is one of the few studies that aims to explore the role of maintenance within PAM, considering all life cycle phases of the asset system.

The Digital Twin as a Mediator for the Digitalization and Conservation of Expert Knowledge

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a physical asset. It reflects the current state of that machine through a model and the data as observed by sensors in the real machine; and enables effective and efficient interaction with the machine, i.e. for monitoring and control purposes. The Digital Twin facilitates the collection of data, as well as its analysis and visualization through its user interfaces, i.e. GUIs such as screens or Mixed Reality that provide intuitive access to the data and facilitates its manipulation. Embedded in Virtual Testbeds the Digital Twin becomes an “Experimentable Digital Twin” (EDT), in which experiments can be performed and the different outcomes can be compared or evaluated. The intuitive representation of the assets allows the experts to interact with the twin, without highly detailed knowledge in computer science. The digital twin observes, records, and benchmarks experiments performed by the operator. This way the operator’s knowledge becomes digitized and thus preserved as an abstract representation of data, formulas, and models inside the digital twin. By introducing the Digital Twin into the processes carried out by different operators (not only the initially observed expert), formerly intuitive decision-making processes of the operators are enhanced based on empirical data. As a result, the Digital Twin serves as an assistance system that can guide future operators and the outcomes of the experiments become reproducible. The specific representations of interactions and outcomes also facilitate collaboration between the machine operators and other stakeholders by providing different operators a common “perspective”.

The Dynamic Digital Twin: diagnosis, treatment, prediction and prevention of disease during the life course (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED A Digital Twin (DT), which is defined originally as a virtual representation of a physical asset, system or process, is a new concept in healthcare. DT in healthcare cannot be a single technology, but a domain adapted multi-modal modelling approach, which incorporates the acquisition, management, analysis, prediction, and interpretation of the data, aiming to improve medical decision making. However, there are many challenges and barriers that has to be overcome before a DT can be used in healthcare. In this viewpoint paper, we address these challenges, and envision a dynamic DT in healthcare for optimizing individual patient health care journeys. We describe how we can commit multiple domains to developing this DT. With our cross-domain definition of the DT, we aim to define future goals, trade-offs, and methods, which guide the development of the dynamic DT and the implementation strategies in healthcare.

A Roadmap to Integrate Digital Twins for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

In the last decade, Australian SMEs are steadily becoming more digitally engaged, but they still face issues and barriers to fully adopt Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Among the tools that I4.0 encompasses, digital twin (DT) and digital thread (DTH) technologies hold significant interest and value. Some of the challenges are the lack of expertise in developing the communication framework required for data collection, processing, and storing; concerns about data and cyber security; lack of knowledge of the digitization and visualisation of data; and value generation for businesses from the data. This article aims to demonstrate the feasibility of DT implementation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing a framework based on simple and low-cost solutions and providing insight and guidance to overcome technological barriers. To do so, this paper first outlines the theoretical framework and its components, and subsequently discusses a simplified and generalised DT model of a real-world physical asset that demonstrates how these components function, how they are integrated and how they interact with each other. An experimental scenario is presented to transform data harvested from a resistance temperature detector sensor connected with a WAGO 750-8102 Programmable Logic Controller for data storage and analysis, predictive simulation and modelling. Our results demonstrate that sensor data could be readily integrated from Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and enabling DT technologies, where users could view real time data and key performance indicators (KPIs) in the form of a 3D model. Data from both the sensor and 3D model are viewable in a comprehensive history log through a database. Via this technological demonstration, we provide several recommendations on software, hardware, and expertise that SMEs may adopt to assist with their DT implementations.

Physical Asset Management in Equipment-Oriented Industries Using the Equipment Life Cycle Management Approach

Proper assets management and maintenance, especially equipment in the value chain of an organization, the failure of which leads to interruptions in the system and waiting in the production line, are very vital and of special importance in "equipment-oriented" organizations, including industries such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, steel, minerals, companies involved in the production and distribution of water, electricity, etc. Usually such organizations have a constant need to create an efficient and effective life cycle in order to achieve an efficient physical asset management system. The present study aimed to investigate the physical assets management in equipment-oriented industries with the equipment life cycle management (resource-based) view in oil and gas industries with a case study in an upstream oil industry company (namely North Drilling Company). For this purpose, first 15 criteria have been obtained based on literature review and research literature for evaluating the performance of physical asset management in oil and gas companies. Then, eight of the most important performance evaluation criteria were determined based on experts’ opinions and the fuzzy Delphi method, and in the next step, these criteria were weighted using the fuzzy SWARA method. According to the results, the most important criterion is the cost of maintenance and the least important is the cost of service-support. Finally, solutions are presented in the form of practical suggestions to improve the physical asset management system in this company.

Advanced approach to the maintenance of hydraulic and turbine oils

In the growing power demands, turbine users want to feel confident that their equipment is reliable, efficient, and delivering peak performance every day. Proper care and maintenance of turbine oils is critical to avoiding disruptive and potentially costly downtime, and can help extend oil and component life. The ISO 55001 Asset Management and EN 17485 Maintenance within Physical Asset Management: “Framework for improving the value of the physical assets through their whole life cycle” provides an opportunity for companies to review and improve asset owner and service provider relationships, improve performance and utilisation of assets, reduce operational risk arising from the various stages of asset management and reduce the cost of insurance and ensure regulatory compliance. With such an approach and the use of the best available technology, turbine oil is becoming an asset. This article focuses on turbine oils quality, their degradation, additives and, varnish removal.

Development of Virtual Emulation Modelling on the Reconfigurable Hot Forming Process and Its Digital Twin Implementation Perspectives

In this paper, the development of virtual emulation modelling is presented on the reconfigurable hot forming process and its further implementation for the associated digital twins. When validating the developed Digital Twin system, it is essentially important to test the digital twin prior to its connection to a real physical asset especially from a safety and efficiency prospective. The development is focused on digital virtual emulation of the reconfigurable hot forming process, which can emulate the physical element as the means of validating the digital twin system with the throughout-digital virtual simulations and underlying results.

Digital Twin Concepts with Uncertainty for Nuclear Power Applications

Digital Twins (DTs) are receiving considerable attention from multiple disciplines. Much of the literature at this time is dedicated to the conceptualization of digital twins, and associated enabling technologies and challenges. In this paper, we consider these propositions for the specific application of nuclear power. Our review finds that the current DT concepts are amenable to nuclear power systems, but benefit from some modifications and enhancements. Further, some areas of the existing modeling and simulation infrastructure around nuclear power systems are adaptable to DT development, while more recent efforts in advanced modeling and simulation are less suitable at this time. For nuclear power applications, DT development should rely first on mechanistic model-based methods to leverage the extensive experience and understanding of these systems. Model-free techniques can then be adopted to selectively, and correctively, augment limitations in the model-based approaches. Challenges to the realization of a DT are also discussed, with some being unique to nuclear engineering, however most are broader. A challenging aspect we discuss in detail for DTs is the incorporation of uncertainty quantification (UQ). Forward UQ enables the propagation of uncertainty from the digital representations to predict behavior of the physical asset. Similarly, inverse UQ allows for the incorporation of data from new measurements obtained from the physical asset back into the DT. Optimization under uncertainty facilitates decision support through the formal methods of optimal experimental design and design optimization that maximize information gain, or performance, of the physical asset in an uncertain environment.